Recycling paper has become a major industry. Paper of all types is collected at a collection site and compacted into bales that can be efficiently transported to a recycling pulp mill. The baling process typically involves the use of high strength steel wire. The paper is compressed in a compressor and then the wire is wrapped, e.g., in six strands around the bale to hold the bale in the compressed and handleable state. The bales approach, e.g., 100 cubic feet and weigh on the order of 1,200 pounds.
The bales are loaded, e.g., in trucks, using forklift trucks and hauled to the mill site. At the mill site, the wire strands are cut and the paper placed on conveyors to be conveyed to a pulping tank. The pulping tank is typically a continuous process and the paper is rapidly reduced to pulp and then through various follow-up processes, the pulp is cleaned and cycled into the paper making stage.
A major problem with the system described above is the handling of the wire binding. In the first instance, the bales are maintained in a compressed state by the wire strands. As the strands are cut, the wire will snap apart and the whipping wire produces a serious threat to the safety of the bale handlers.
The wire is typically loaded onto the conveyor along with the paper released from the bale. Often one of the strands is not cut so as to assist in handling and in any event, a substantial portion of the wire strands is placed on the conveyor and conveyed into the pulping tank (pulper). The wire strands can and do get wrapped around the pulleys and cogs of the conveyor. The strands that get dumped into the pulping tank get screened out of the pulp but remain in the tank and have to be periodically removed from the pulping tank. The process has to be stopped and the wires removed and collected to subsequently be loaded onto trucks for disposal. Further, the wire while contained in the pulper causes undue wear and tear of the pulper, all at a substantial cost to the recycling process.